The Corsair - 1857 - Broadway Articles Page 185

The nominations were just released for the 2008 Olivier Awards and Haispray is leading the pack with 11 nominations.

Engaging Shaw makes its New Jersey premiere March 13 through April 13 at New Jersey Repertory Company, 179 Broadway in Long Branch. For tickets and information call 732-229-3166.

Jim Caruso's Cast Party and TheaterMania.com are proud to announce celebrated and honored songwriting & performing team of Marcy Heisler (bookwriter/lyricist) and Zina Goldrich (composer), in The Marcy & Zina Show, Monday, March 10, 2008 at 7PM, as part of the long-running, critically-heralded and popular concert series Broadway at Birdland.

The OBIE-winning HERE Arts Center proudly presents (RUS)H, with text and video design by James Scruggs, directed by Kristin Marting. (RUS)H will appear as part of HERE's 2007-2008 mainstage season that includes seven new multi-disciplinary productions spanning theatre, dance, puppetry and multimedia work. (RUS)H will run Wednesday, February 27 - Saturday, March 22 at 3LD Arts & Technology Center

This month you can join Broadway actor-singer, Michael Winther (Mamma Mia, 1776, Songs From An Unmade Bed) and one of Broadway's top musical directors, Kimberly Grigsby (Grease, Spring Awakening, Light In The Piazza) with special guest, Sally Wilfert (William Finn's Make Me A Song) for a unique, romantic evening of new love songs by some of our best contemporary theater composers and lyricists. Among the songwriters represented will be Deborah Abramson, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Jason Robert Brown, Mark Campbell, William Finn, Jenny Giering, Ricky Ian Gordan, Adam Guettel, Fred Hersch, Steve Marzullo, Chris Miller, Joe Thalken and more. The songs were selected especially for Valentine's week.

Stage vet Alvin Epstein is set to star as Prospero in the Actors' Shakespeare Project's production of William Sheakespeare's The Tempest at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, March 13-April 13. This production will be directed by Patrick Swanson and designed by David R. Gammons.

The UK Premiere of Addictions, three one-act plays by Tricia Walsh-Smith, is set for Sunday, June 8 at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End, directed by Christopher Biggins.

New York City Center and London's Sadler's Wells Theatre will present two programs of works by award-winning dancer/choreographer Akram Khan, April 23 - 27, at New York City Center. The programs will feature the American premiere of bahok, featuring dancers from the National Ballet of China, and the American premiere of the critically acclaimed zero degrees, a duet with Moroccan-Flemish choreographer/dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Steppenwolf celebrates its 32nd season with Gala 2008 on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St.

'Symphony' by Sarah Brightman, the world's biggest selling soprano of all time, scores her highest U.S. chart debut this week at #13 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart with first week sales totaling 31,463. 'Symphony' is Brightman's first album of new material in five years.

Secrets of a Soccer Mom, a new play by Kathleen Clark and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey, will begin previews on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at the Snapple Theater Center (50th Street at Broadway) and is set to open on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. The production stars Caralyn Kozlowski, Nancy Ringham and Deborah Sonnenberg.

The hit musical Altar Boyz, announces final extension at Drury Lane Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut Street, in Chicago, now through March 30, 2008.

Kerry Ellis currently starring in Wicked will join Idina Menzel and American singer Josh Groban in Chess at the Royal Albert Hall. Also newly confirmed for the 21st-anniversary concert production, which takes place on 12 and 13 May 2008, is Broadway star Adam Pascal. Further casting is still to be announced.

Diane Schuur, the acclaimed vocalist and pianist, will celebrate the release of her new Concord Records CD, 'Some Other Time,' with an exclusive engagement at the Blue Note Jazz Club (101 West Third Street in New York) from Tuesday, March 4 to Sunday, March 9. Shows are at 8PM & 10:30PM. There is a $35 cover

The most awarded African-American playwright in history, August Wilson's crowning achievement was his ten-play cycle, August Wilson's 20th Century in which each work is set in a different decade in the 1900's. The cycle, often titled the Pittsburgh Cycle because nine of the ten plays are set in Pittsburgh, chronicles the African-American experience in the 20th century. August Wilson's 20th Century will be presented in a series of staged readings at the Kennedy Center.

Nancy LaMott was a talented singer who was on the verge of stardom when she was struck down, at the age of 43, by Uterine Cancer. February 12th will see the release of a special-edition CD and DVD (the first DVD to feature the late singer).

The Barrow Group Theatre Company (312 West 36th St.) will present the Off-Broadway Premiere of John Ahlin's Gray Area with previews beginning on Wednesday, February 13, 2008. The official opening will be on Monday, February 18, 2007. Seth Barrish directs.

There is no better way to spend a winter evening than in a packed theatre rocked with laughter. If that is what you are after, check out Neil Simon's Proposals being presented by Amicus players at Fairview Library Theatre. * * * * (OUT OF 5)

Encore Entertainment's loving revival of Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize winner 'Driving Miss Daisy' proves a crowd-pleaser with Toronto audiences. * * * * (OUT OF 5)

Greasy Joan & Co. kicks-off its twelfth year of producing innovative productions of classic plays with Molière's comedy The Misanthrope, directed by Associate Artistic Director Libby Ford and translated by Ranjit Bolt. The Misanthrope will play the Athenaeum Theater, 2936 N. Southport in Chicago, for a limited engagement March 5 through April 5, 2008. The press opening is Friday, March 7, 2008 at 8PM.

Mark Jacoby will join two-time Tony Award winning stars Chita Rivera and George Hearn in the Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA) production of The Visit. Signature's four-month celebration of the works of John Kander and Fred Ebb will also include The Happy Time, to star George Dvorsky, David Margulies and Michael Minarik.

Magic Theatre announced that Steve Yockey's Octopus, a co-production with San Francisco's Encore Theatre Company, will replace the previously announced Wendy MacLeod's Birnham Woods as the sixth play of its 2007-08 Season of New Plays.